Swarming Bees in Cheam Park

This morning we had a little excitement when some Honey Bees Swarmed in Cheam Park. They decided to rest on the fence between the Depot and the burning ground. (They are the brown blob in the middle of the photo!)

Sutton Council called the Bee lady, who was only too happy to offer them a new home in one of her Bee Hives.

So why do Bees swarm?

The sight of swarming bees can certainly unnerve some people. However, it is a very natural and wonderful part of the life cycle of honey bees. If you are looking for advice on bee swarm removal, there is a link at the bottom of this page, however, you’ll certainly benefit from reading about this subject first, so do read on.

The honey bee colony has survived a cool winter. There are fewer bees in the colony than there were during the summer – the honey bee queen, and perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 workers, all huddled together to keep warm. There are no drones – they got the elbow at the end of summer, in order to conserve food resources!

If the bees live in a hive, then hopefully they had a kind beekeeper who ensured they would have enough of their own honey, full of nutrients and goodness, to sustain them.

As the weather warms up, the colony expands. More workers are produced. The colony maintains its efficiency through being extremely well organised. There may be 50,000 workers busily foraging, regulating the temperature in the hive, guarding the colony or tending to the brood, as well as feeding each other. The queen is busy laying, producing more workers, and finally drones.

Throughout all this activity, something else very important is happening: communication through ‘pheromones’.

Bee pheromones are produced by workers, drones and the queen. The pheromone is passed on through ‘food sharing’ – the members of the colony feed each other, thereby transmitting the pheromone. So, in the act of feeding, the bees are also communicating with each other. This is known as ‘trophallaxis’.

The queen honey bee produces the ‘queen pheromone’. This pheromone attracts the workers to her, and encourages them to build the comb, forage, and tend the brood. The whole colony knows it must have a queen for its continued survival, so the honey bee queen plays a very important role. You can learn more about her by clicking here.

But now back to the colony.

There is only one honey bee queen, and there are now thousands and thousands of workers. There comes a point when the crowd is so great, that not all of the workers have access to the queen. They are no longer receiving her pheromone signals, and so for them, she is non-existent!

This induces within these workers the need to create a new honey bee queen. If you’d like to know how queens are made, click on the link I highlighted above.

Soon, we shall have swarming bees! Why?

There is no space in the colony for more than one queen (oh, and over-crowding in a hive can also encourage swarming). Before the new queen emerges, the old queen takes off with part of the colony to establish a new nest, but before leaving their original colony, all of the bees will fill themselves up on nectar. Once the swarm has left its old nest or hive, this is when we might see a whirling mass of swarming bees in the air, or a bee swarm settled on the branch of a tree (or possibly somewhere not so convenient!).

Why do they fly around in a clump?

The reason a bee swarm looks like a clump of bees, is because all of the workers are gathered around the queen, hence forming a clump.

But note, the queen is not the strongest of flyers, and so inevitably will need to rest at some point – perhaps on a branch, post or fence. Meanwhile, ‘Scout bees’ will be sent out to look for a suitable new place for the colony to live.

Are swarms dangerous?

They are focused on finding a new nest, not on attacking. That said, it is important to keep your distance from swarming bees, because if the bees feel threatened, then it is possible they will sting.

A swarm may stay around for a few days, depending on how quickly the scout bees find a suitable new home. This could happen very quickly, even within a day.

If, however, you come across a bee swarm that really is too inconvenient to tolerate, then firstly:

Do not attempt to move or destroy the swarm. Such attempts could seriously back fire.